The problem
A major Performing Arts Center in the Midwest ran a multi-terabyte SAN with several LUNs. One of their LUNs held a VMware environment: a 2TB VMFS volume with a 1.9TB virtual machine and roughly 50 snapshots. When the system ran out of space, it automatically deleted the five oldest snapshots – and with them, critical user data.
The challenge
This was a double-virtualized environment: the primary VM ran Microsoft Server 2012 as a Storage Pool, with secondary VMs living inside that pool. Even recovering the deleted snapshot files would not be enough – the primary VM itself could not access the secondary VMs after the deletion.
Our approach
Because time was critical and the media was stable, the client chose our ACE Remote Recovery Manager (ARRM). After an initial web conference, we securely connected to the client’s internal server, deployed our proprietary software, and ran an in-depth diagnostic.
- We recovered 3 of the 5 deleted snapshot files and confirmed they contained the critical users’ data.
- When the client’s primary VM still could not mount the Storage Pool, we didn’t stop – most recovery companies would have.
- Using additional proprietary software, we manually rebuilt the primary VMware VM from the base file and all available snapshots.
- We then extracted the secondary VMs from the Microsoft Storage Pool and recovered the requested end-user data from inside them.
The result
100% recovery of the requested end-user data – from a double-virtualized environment with deleted files on VMFS and a corrupted Storage Pool, all handled remotely.
“I just received the recovery drive and everything looks great. You guys do some awesome work over there!” – client testimonial
Ready for a similar challenge? Call 844-223-7243 – engineers answer 24/7 – or start a case online. Free evaluation, no data, no fee. Remote recovery available via ARRM.
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